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Does Social Media Affect Productivity?

January 25th, 2017

Social media is ubiquitous today. Everyone is using it, whether it be Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or any other platform. People seem to spend more of their time on social media than off, either recording what they are doing, or following what others are doing.

One survey showed the variety of reasons people use social media at work– one-third of those responding said they used it to take a break from work, one-fourth used it to keep in touch with friends and family, while the other two-fifths said they used it for various work related purposes, from building connections with other workers to getting questions answered. So, a question of significant interest to employers is the extent to which social media is affecting productivity.

Social Media — Good and Bad

Statistics show that workers are more productive than ever – over the past 40 years, worker productivity has increased by more than 70 percent. But studies examining the impact of social media on productivity have produced mixed results. Some have shown that social media actually increases productivity – spending a few minutes on social media helps workers recover and recharge and gets them ready for their next work related task.

Other studies, however, produced different results. In one, half the employees responding said social media was helpful in getting a little mental boost, but the other half said that social media was distracting from work, and one-fifth said it had a negative impact on their work. One expert on work productivity has said that for every minute an employee spends on social media, they are losing 25 minutes of work time.

What Employers Can Do

So, clearly, social media has both positive and negative impacts. The issue for employers is how they can maximize the positive effects while minimizing the negative. One way of doing this is creating an intranet, a private electronic network that includes only the employees of a particular company. An intranet encourages interaction among employees and makes that interaction simpler and easier to do.

The intranet can be subdivided into smaller networks as well, in a department, for example, setting up a kind of virtual meeting place for employees who are working together on a project. Setting up such intranets also has some interesting side effects, such as reducing the amount of time that employees spend on other social networks, and the amount time they spend sending email.

If you are looking for work in the Anchorage area, Opti Staffing can help you find a job that fits your skills and experience. Opti is one of the leading staffing agencies in Anchorage. Give Opti a call today